Favorite Teams

A.J. Hughes and the Virginia Tech defense did its part in bottling up Miami, but it was a 549-yard outburst from the Hokies' offense that spurred Frank Beamer's team to a 42-24 victory.
(AP Photo | Wilfredo Lee)

Virginia Tech quarterback Logan Thomas committed eight turnovers in his previous two games. He had only six incompletions in nearly a perfect outing Saturday at Miami.

Tailback Trey Edmunds rushed for five touchdowns in the season’s first nine games. He had four against Miami.

The Hokies themselves were coming off losses to Boston College and Duke. Instead, they seemed to arrive for Saturday’s game in a time machine and looked much more like a vintage Virginia Tech bunch than the team stuck with a first-to-13-wins approach for much of the season.

Thomas threw for 366 yards and two touchdowns as the Hokies (7-3, 4-2 ACC) shredded Miami 42-24 and opened up the clearest path to the ACC’s Coastal Division for anyone. Virginia Tech must still beat Maryland and Virginia, and it still needs Duke to lose one of its final three games. But a date with Florida State in the league title game appears to be the most likely outcome for the Hokies despite their midseason hiccup.

Nine other observations from the weekend that was around the ACC …

Miami’s defense was (further) exposed. And by Virginia Tech, of all teams. The Hurricanes were picked apart at Florida State a week earlier, and that happens. But giving up 549 yards to a team that frequently hasn’t been able to get out of its own way on offense all season? That’s troubling.

Troubling actually is a good word to describe the Hurricanes’ last four games. Close calls against North Carolina and Wake Forest have given way to drubbings at the hands of Florida State and Virginia Tech. The last two weeks have done a fine job of illustrating how far Miami still has to go to truly become an ACC contender.

Florida State is headed for Charlotte. The Seminoles finished up one bit of business this week, thrashing Wake Forest 59-3 to secure their place in the ACC championship game. The Seminoles can do no worse than tie Clemson at 7-1, and they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker by virtue of their emphatic walloping of the Tigers last month.

There’s more still to come for Florida State, but this wasn’t the week to learn a whole lot about the Seminoles. They were splendid on defense, forcing seven turnovers and bringing two of them back for touchdowns, and arrived at their customary blowout victory in a different manner than usual. There are no nits to pick here, but that was to be expected against a severely limited opponent.

Even while factoring in facing Florida State, Wake Forest is going nowhere. The Demon Deacons (4-6) have three points in their last two games, managed 166 total yards against the Seminoles and barely completed more passes to their own players (seven) than Florida State’s (six).

Wake Forest must sweep Duke and Vanderbilt to earn a bowl bid. Those teams are a combined 12-6, which is to say the Demon Deacons will miss the postseason for the second consecutive year.

Pittsburgh keeps fooling everyone. Paul Chryst’s team did not play well the last two weeks in losses at Navy and Georgia Tech. In fact, the Panthers hadn’t played well since the middle of September.

So of course they beat Notre Dame 28-21 to invigorate their postseason hopes. Freshman James Conner resurfaced with two touchdown runs and Devin Street had a pair of touchdown receptions. But at this point, don’t expect much help deciphering whether Pitt will play well or not in a given week. That’s anyone’s guess, as it so often is.

Duke’s DeVon Edwards might have had the best week out of anyone in the country. It would be difficult to top a kickoff return for a touchdown plus a pair of interception returns for scores, as Edwards had in the Blue Devils’ 38-20 victory over N.C. State.

The redshirt freshman is just another example of shrewd talent evaluation and development on the part of Duke coach David Cutcliffe and his staff. Edwards’ stellar day helped the Blue Devils assure themselves of their first winning season since 1994.

Hypothetically, would N.C. State be 3-6 if Tom O’Brien was still its coach? Probably not — though athletic director Debbie Yow’s decision to dismiss O’Brien last year wasn’t aimed at 2013. Plus, given the quarterback situation after Mike Glennon’s graduation, it wasn’t going to be a banner year in Raleigh.

Nonetheless, O’Brien would have done better this season than Dave Doeren has, though a roster built to his specifications rather than Doeren’s has more than a little to do with that. The Wolfpack (3-6, 0-6) are reeling, but it’s not best to reach any conclusions about Doeren’s long-term prospects based solely on a transition year.

The first score dictates so much for Syracuse. The Orange has scored first in six games this season and won five of them (the exception being a 3-0 early edge on Penn State). When someone else scores first, Syracuse is 0-3.

It’s obviously preferable to play from ahead, but this goes beyond just spotting teams a lead. When the Orange is up, it doesn’t have to ask too much of quarterback Terrel Hunt. When it falls behind, the passing game becomes a greater necessity. Syracuse’s defense has allowed Hunt and the offense to take a run-heavy approach the last two weeks, and the result is the Orange are a victory away from playing in the postseason.

Maryland was a mess. Some credit for Syracuse’s 20-3 victory belongs to the Orange, which (a) produced a stellar opening drive and (b) did a fine job on defense.

That said, Maryland was a disaster and created nearly as many problems for itself as Syracuse presented. The Terrapins committed four turnovers (and nearly had a few more), dropped a handful of passes and generally looked inept. It was a pitiful showing for a team coming off an open date and dropped Maryland to 0-16 under coach Randy Edsall in games played after Oct. 13.

North Carolina continues its belated revival. The Tar Heels blitzed Virginia to improve to 4-5, and a bowl game remains a viable goal with Pittsburgh, Old Dominion and Duke still to come.

It was also a fine day for quarterback Marquise Williams. He became the third ACC player since 2000 to run for, throw and catch touchdowns in the same game, joining Clemson’s C.J. Spiller (2009) and Wake Forest’s Tanner Price (2013) in that small club.